


strike a match (watch it burn)

by lavarose



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), mcyt
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Angst, Angst and Fluff, Arson, Dream is also a dick, Fluff, George is kinda a dick i’m sorry, Hierarchy, Hurt/Comfort, PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Redemption Arcs, Sapnap is less of a dick but still a dick, SleepyBoysInc - Freeform, Sleepyboysinc are all related, Tommy has PTSD from the wars + from watching Tubbo die at the festival, Toxic Relationships, Treason, Tubbo has PTSD from the festival, Villain Technoblade, not beta read we die like wilbur, villain tommy, yes im biased towards sap what about it i like arson
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:27:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27788245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavarose/pseuds/lavarose
Summary: do you know what they did to him, tommy?...they exiled him.———————a story in which tommy is once again exiled from both l’manberg and the dream smp, this time by the new king, and things take a turn for the worst. tommy reunites with someone he didn’t expect to.———————lowercase is intended. it’s just nicer for me to look at when i'm typing.———————updates will be daily OR every other day. i have school 8am to 3pm but i’m trying to get into homeschooling atm!
Relationships: Alexis | Quackity/Jschlatt (past & onesided), Dave | Technoblade & Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit & Phil Watson, you probably know all of the other ones bc the friendships follow canon
Comments: 18
Kudos: 286





	1. if only we could make it work

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: If any of the content creators involved in this story find this and are uncomfortable with it, I will take it down (or private it so only registered users can read). I’d rather you didn’t actively try to tell them about it, but I won’t be mad if they find out.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the story of theseus.

“let me tell you a story, tommy. a story of a man called theseus. his country-- well, his city state, technically-- was in danger, and he sent himself forward into enemy lines; he slayed the minotaur and saved his city. you know what they did to him, tommy? they exiled him. he died in disgrace, despised by his people. that’s what happens to heroes, tommy. the greeks knew the score.”  
...  
“but if you want to be a hero tommy... that's fine... that's fine.”  
...  
“but if you want to be a hero tommy...”  
...  
“do you want to be a hero tommy?”  
...  
“THEN DIE LIKE ONE!”  
...  
the withers were released upon l’manberg. technoblade was never found.


	2. the wrath of the new king

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tommy goes to court. george decides his fate.

upon impulsively admitting to the robbery of king georgenotfound, though simultaneously denying committing arson to the very same king, the entire courtroom went quiet, before rising an uproar. among the chaos, tubbo banged on the desk (somehow forgetting he, as the judge, had a gavel), making everyone silent except tommy, who was yelling about how he shouldn’t be punished. tubbo gave him a certain stare, one the two shared but had promised to only use in situations it was urgently needed. tommy fell silent, an expression tubbo hated to see falling across his face.

“tommy, i need to discuss something with king george for a moment.” tubbo spoke, earning a nod from tommy and a side-smile from george.  
george and tubbo tapped their individual earpieces and entered a private call, meaning that whilst the others could see their actions, they could not hear the king and the president. 

“k-king george.”  
“president tubbo.”  
“so um. we, as you know, just got a confession from tommy, at least for robbing you. i mean, i’m not biased, but it does sound like he did burn your house down too. i’m sorry for your loss by the way, if i can help to rebuild it in any way, do let me know!”  
“i will.”  
“right, right. uh, we need to discuss what.. what punishment we want to give him. i was thinking probation for two weeks, you know, stripping him of his legal titles and making him have to report to fundy everything he does during the respective day for those two weeks? what do you think?”  
“hm.. i have a better idea. i think we can exit out of a private call though. i want to tell everyone want i want his punishment to be at once.”  
“o-okay!”

tubbo left the private call first, leaving george there for a moment as he was returning to tommy yelling at quackity and fundy trying to stop him, whilst nihachu and the others were simply watching. dream momentarily joined the call with george, though he could only tell because he saw dream talking and sitting on one of the fences a fair bit away. the two stopped, george returning to the group and dream disappearing. tubbo spoke up.

“o-okay everyone! king george and i spoke. he’s decided on what he wants tommy’s punishment to be, though he wants to tell us all at the same time. king george, please go ahead.”  
“please, just call me george, tubbo.”  
“r-right!”

george cleared his throat as everyone turned to look at him. 

“i want tommy exiled from l’manberg and the dream smp.”


	3. the aftermath of treason

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tommy’s fate is sealed, and there’s nothing they can do about it.

if you had told tommy 5 minutes ago that in a few minutes, he’d be exiled from his best friend’s own country, he wouldn’t have believed you. 

he still doesn’t. 

“WHAT!? you can’t do this to me!”  
tommy’s voice was the first to shout out, followed by nihachu’s, fundy’s, and quackity’s, then tubbo’s.  
“wait, what!? no! you can’t exile tommy again! please!”  
“WAIT WHAT? geo- king george! you can’t!”  
“holy fucking shit, no me gusta, no me gusta! no me gusta esto en absoluto!”  
“w-what..?”

tommy’s eyes widened and tubbo silently walked over to where he was being kept, leaning his scarred hand through the bars, almost instantly feeling tommy tightly grip it. “ki- george what do you mean..? we can’t exile him- that’s not-“  
“tubbo, i am the king of the dream smp. tommy committed treason against me, denied it, then admitted to half of it. you gave me the power to choose his fate just now.” george grinned, a familiar yet unnerving smile. 

“tommy, i- i’m-“ tubbo began, before turning to face george, “george, please! anything but this! i know i’m not meant to be biased but he’s my best friend! can’t we just give him probation instead? please, i-“  
“no.”

in no more than a blink of a second, george took his sword from its sheath and pointed it at tubbo, “i may not own this land but that man, your vice president, committed treason against me. i want him exiled within 3 hours. if you don’t comply, i will be forced to involve dream and the others. i want tommy out of here within 3 hours or i will declare war on l’manberg.”

tubbo and tommy shared a look, both of their eyes welling with tears. nihachu was crying too, and fundy and quackity were stunned into silence. tubbo squeezed tommy’s hand and faced george. 

“..yes george..”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE NOTE SMTH i’m taking spanish as a gcse but i’m still bad at it so please bare with me if my spanish is bad! D:


	4. are we the bad guys, tommy?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tommy’s friends help him pack. tommy is confused. tommy doesn’t know what he is anymore. 
> 
> he just knows he’s an exile.

they were on the last half an hour before tommy was legally no longer allowed into his own house. tubbo, quackity, fundy, nihachu, and even karl had come to help him pack. or, more so, it was tubbo comforting tommy, quackity and fundy packing up his materials, niki making him large stacks of food so he would be safe, and karl gathering tommy some of wilbur’s old clothes so he had stuff to change into (the group had collectively realised that the only two outfits tommy owns is his normal red and white shirt with the backpack and green bandana around his neck and the black jeans, and his suit - which he was, unfortunately, forced to hand over to tubbo - neither of which had been properly cleaned since he was first exiled by jschlatt.) when he was gone. quackity and fundy had finished packing now, the two had gotten some double chests and put them on a horse they collectively got for tommy. the group didn’t want him to go, but he had to. for l’manberg. 

for tubbo. 

niki made him stacks upon stacks of bread, as well as a few potatos and other vegetables so he had a variety.

karl gathered as many clothes as he could carry. that being, not a lot, but he made a few trips. he had to wash a fair few things due to blood stains, but he got there in the end. he got one of wilbur’s old yellow sweaters - not the one ghostbur wears of course, but a duplicate of it. he got some of wilbur’s original clothes too, that being his signature white shirt, black jacket, and black jeans. karl gathered other clothes, but those were the only two sets tommy wanted. he did give tommy a spare hoodie though. it was plain black. tommy thanked him.

once niki had finished the food making and had packed it into little bags, she decided she would try to make tommy some spare tools incase his ones broke. she was glad he got to keep his armour and tools. 

tommy thought about what great friends he had.

tommy thought about how shitty he treated his friends. 

tommy thought about how shitty he treated wilbur and technoblade. 

tommy thought about how shitty he treated tubbo.

tommy thought about how maybe wilbur was right. 

tommy thought about how maybe he was the villain.

tommy reminded himself that he was tommyinnit. tommy could never be the bad guy.

could he?

tommy thought.  
he thought a lot.   
he had half an hour left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FUN FACT i wrote all 4 of the currently released chapters the day i released all of these, so i predicted today’s stream in a way :D <3

**Author's Note:**

> please leave any criticism if you have any!!


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